It is peculiar how much difference a single person can make sometimes. If it wasn't for their female keyboard player, Apocryphal would just be an average death/doom group. I think the rest of the band realized that too, and so they allowed their keyboardist complete artistic freedom. She, on the other hand, obviously being a talented and sensible musician, ornamented her bandmates' coarse aural workouts with graceful and elegant passages, which turned "The Mask" into a potent piece of work. I guess Apocryphal's case proves that a little feminine touch can sometimes be quite beneficial after all. The fusion of harsh screams and heavy riffing with artful, neo-classical keyboards proved itself to be viable in the hands of this bunch, who coherently delivered both hard knocks and subtle atmospherics within more complex than usual song structures. Good work.

© 2001 boris